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Sixth victim dies after Magdeburg Christmas market attack

AFP
AFP - news@thelocal.de
Sixth victim dies after Magdeburg Christmas market attack
A letter on a cardboard written by Iranians living on Magdeburg is pictured at a makeshift memorial at the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 27, 2024. (Photo by JENS SCHLUETER / AFP)

The death toll from a car ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in December has risen to six, prosecutors said on Monday.

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A 52-year-old woman has died in hospital as a result of injuries she sustained in the attack, prosecutors in the nearby city of Naumburg said.

A black BMW ploughed through the traditional market on December 20th, running over and scattering bodies amid the festive stalls.

A total of 299 people were injured in the attack, according to the latest figures from the state interior ministry.

A Saudi doctor of psychiatry, Taleb A., 50, was arrested at the scene, but the suspected attacker's motive remains unclear.

The suspect, who had permanent German residence, had in many online posts voiced strongly anti-Islam views, anger at German authorities and support for far-right conspiracy narratives on the "Islamisation" of Europe.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said there were signs the suspect was suffering from a psychiatric illness.

Security forces on Monday transferred him by air from the Burg prison near Magdeburg to a correctional facility in the eastern city of Dresden.

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the aim was to "spatially and emotionally separate" the suspect from those affected and from other prisoners.

They pointed out that the alleged perpetrator had himself worked as a doctor in the past and had treated inmates of the Burg facility.

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The Magdeburg attack came two months ahead of a general election in Germany. It has reignited a heated debate about security and immigration after several deadly knife attacks last year blamed on Islamist extremists.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is currently polling in second place, held what it called a memorial rally for the victims and demanded that Germany "must close the borders".

READ ALSO: Protests in German city of Magdeburg after Christmas market attack

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